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Seven Modern Maladies and God's Solutions (7 of 7)

Greed & Generosity

Greed is a vice as it places a greater value on things than God or people. Generosity does the opposite.

If you are 50 year of age or older, you know this guy:

"Thurston Howell III” from the TV show “Gilligan’s Island.” The opening credits call him “the millionaire.” In one episode Howell’s wife Lovey explains that during the Great Depression the Howell family suffered great loss going from being billionaires to being mere millionaires. Though they were allegedly only going on a “three hour cruise,” the Howells brought several suitcases of clothes and money. This makes me think they were really on the lam from debt collectors!

Both the Howells were pampered rich people who bragged about their possessions, wealth, and connections to the rich and famous. Neither of them offered to work on daily chores or help with rescue plans, despite their alleged eagerness to return to civilization.

As a symbol for the deadly sin of GREED, Mr. Howell is the obvious choice. Veteran actor Jim Backus hammed his way through the role, achieving a surprising range of emotions, including a child-like need to sleep with a teddy bear imaginatively named “Teddy.” Backus so successfully affected a character of East Coast wealth and privilege that we have a hard time thinking of any other character as the stereotypical “millionaire.” In fact, during the 2012 presidential campaign Mitt Romney was compared to Thurston Howell III as the epitome of a wealthy Easterner, out of touch with reality and the common American.

Jim Backus died in 1989, his last screen credit being the voice of Howell on “Gilligan’s Planet,” an animated spinoff of “Gilligan’s Island.”

1. The vicious vice of greed (1 John 2:15-7).

Usually we think of GREED as being a love of money, an unquenchable desire for more. Today we’ll expand our definition to include love of worldly things when we love anything or anyone more than God. In fact, that’s the also the definition of idolatry!

John taught that love of the world and love of God are mutually exclusive. In abundant clarity, the Spirit revealed through John the trials we can face.

What we love reveals a lot about us (15). Here are the contrasting orientations. Love of self and love of worldly things go hand in hand. Love of God and love for others is manifest in an attitude that discounts worldly things, using them to bring joy to others and self.

John identified a “Big Three” set of attitudes that betray love of worldly things (16).

First, the CRAVINGS OF SINFUL MAN. The phrase SINFUL MAN is translated as FLESH in other versions. The CRAVINGS are SINFUL because they come from the sin nature and lead to sin. As sin, these CRAVINGS separate us from God and from one another. This is GREED in the form of exalting self so much that God and others don’t matter.

Second, the LUST OF THE EYES. LUST can also be translated as “covets” or “envys.” It is a sin that is not limited to sexuality; it covers everything in this world that we can desire passionately. It is the life of an addict; so self-centered that one is unaware that their passion is not normal or healthy, but is consuming them. This is GREED in the form of acquiring, hoarding, or using things.

Third, he BOASTING OF WHAT HE HAS AND DOES. This is a “KIA” person. No, I don’t mean “Killed In Action,” instead this acronym means “KNOW IT ALL.” This is the kind of person who can’t stop telling you about their brainstorms, their kid’s honors, and what they bought on sale! This is a life dominated by the latest thing, having the “prettiest” or the “greatest.” It is chasing after achievement to make you feel better about yourself; a vain effort to justify your misdeeds and even your existence. This is GREED in the form of reputation; focusing on what other people think about you.

Worldly things are not worthy of our love because they do not last forever: THE WORLD AND ITS DESIRES ALL PASS AWAY (17). Either at death or at the second coming, this world is going to cease for every one of us. On a personal scale and also on a universal scale, all that glitters and all that is gold will one day be no more. There are other reasons not to love the world. Satisfy a worldly urge and the urge will soon return. Worldly things do not provide lasting satisfaction. Satisfying a worldly urge will not benefit your spiritual life; worldly honors will not make you more spiritually mature. God is eternal; things are temporary. It makes no sense to invest ourselves in the stuff that won’t last. Instead, here’s where we should be putting our time and energy: THE MAN WHO DOES THE WILL OF GOD LIVES FOREVER.

2. The vital virtue of generosity (1 Timothy 6:17-19).

Paul condemned the LOVE OF MONEY so thoroughly in vs. 6-10 that someone might think it impossible to be RICH and heaven-bound. Here Paul instructs rich people how to live in a godly way that prepares them for heaven. That fact disproves any notion that the RICH are automatically excluded.

The RICH person’s “don’t do” list.

First, don’t be ARROGANT (17). I want to interpret ARROGANT to mean “self-sufficient.” Paul is commanding Timothy’s people to rely on God, not on their wealth or any other worldly thing. Both self-sufficiency and outright arrogance are subtle and frequent temptations for people who have a lot of stuff.

Second, don’t put your HOPE IN WEALTH (17). Why not? Because it’s so UNCERTAIN. The word UNCERTAIN notes that worldly things are likely to disappoint us; they will disappear when needed most. For example, money can buy insurance and medical care, but you can’t buy health or recovery from illness. Proverbs 23:4-5 makes a point I believe all of us have experienced at least once: DO NOT WEAR YOURSELF OUT TO GET RICH; HAVE THE WISDOM TO SHOW RESTRAINT. CAST BUT A GLANCE AT RICHES AND THEY ARE GONE, FOR THEY WILL SURELY SPROUT WINGS AND FLY OFF TO THE SKY LIKE AN EAGLE.

Time flies; it seems money does too.

Worldly things are unworthy of our love for all these reasons. What is certain is God’s love and He is the only

Next, we read the RICH person’s “to do” list.

First, put your HOPE IN GOD (17). Why? For one thing, it is God who RICHLY PROVIDES US WITH EVERYTHING. RICHLY means God has been generous with us; we must be generous with one another. Notice the word EVERYTHING; we need to be reminded that neither we nor the bank really “own” anything. All of it is owned by God and put in our hands to use for His glory. His purpose in this provision is FOR OUR ENJOYMENT. Worldly things are never to be the center of our affections, but they are given for us to enjoy. Joy is at the center of the life of godly people.

Second, do GOOD (18). GOOD is best defined as “godly.” Morally good things are in line with the revealed will and character of God.

Third, become RICH IN GOOD DEEDS (18). Worldly ambition is to become rich in worldly things; to possess much. Godly ambition is to do good as often as possible. Accumulating good deeds for their own sake is not the point; that would merely be pride. Instead, Scripture describes three God-approved motives:

Love for God; gratitude for what He’s done.

Love for others; a desire to serve and connect them with God.

Love for self; the accumulation of heavenly rewards.

Fourth, be GENEROUS (18). God has loved us unconditionally; we ought to love each other unconditionally. God has generously provided for us all things needed to survive and to enjoy life. We must be similarly generous with each other. If we thought of ourselves as a pipe, and not a pool, it would help. We tend to see ourselves as pools; God gives and raises the level of stuff we accumulate. That’s not biblical. More appropriately, we are pipes or conduits through which God’s gracious gifts flow from us to others.

Fifth, SHARE with others (18). This word is translated “distribute” in the King James’ Version. Take the wealth entrusted to us and distribute it among the needy and good causes. No hoarding. If you don’t have much money, share your time. If you don’t have much time, share your table. Scale is never a reason for not sharing; typically the poorest people are the most likely to SHARE, the wealthiest the most likely to hoard.

Whether we consider ourselves rich or poor or something else, we are to use worldly wealth to gain eternal rewards. Paul wrote, LAY UP TREASURE FOR THEMSELVES AS A FIRM FOUNDATION FOR THE COMING AGE and TAKE HOLD OF THE LIFE THAT IS TRULY LIFE (19). Do you need to a reminder you can’t take any of this stuff with you past death? If so, here’s your reminder (v. 7): FOR WE BROUGHT NOTHING INTO THE WORLD, AND WE CAN TAKE NOTHING OUT OF IT. It may help to think of worldly things as things we can expend to “invest” in heaven, looking forward to receiving a “dividend” when we stand before Jesus Christ.

If you are younger than 50, you know all about:

LinkedIn, a website that is designed to help people fulfill their business ambitions. The site was launched in 2002 to help employers and job seekers network and find one another to facilitate employment.

This website serves us as a symbol of GREED because it is all about worldly ambition, climbing the corporate ladder, being a success in purely worldly terms. In fact, the founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, made that very connection himself in an interview last year.

I joined LinkedIn five years ago as a means of searching for a job. Now I use it to publish my messages on the Internet and stay in touch with friends and associates. LinkedIn has a great deal of influence on our culture; it is the 34th most popular website world wide, with with 500 million members in 200 countries as of a year ago. In 2016, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for 26.4 billion dollars.

If you’ve been paying attention, you know that we’ve covered seven deadly sins and there were seven castaways on Gilligan’s Island. We picked on the Skipper twice but haven’t talked about Gilligan at all. You may be wondering what role the character of Gilligan is supposed to play in this series of messages. What deadly sin is Gilligan supposed to symbolize? Let’s stop and think about it:

- Gilligan is responsible for marooning them on the island.

- His clumsiness and ineptitude foils all their escape plans.

- He wears red in every episode.

- It is HIS island.

Isn’t it obvious? Gilligan is a symbol of the THE DEVIL!

- The devil deceived Eve and is responsible for marooning us in this world of sin.

- The devil will always foil “escape plans” that depend on any kind of worldly resource.

- The devil, however, doesn’t always wear red; he’s more subtle than that. The Bible says he can appear as an angel of light (see 2 Corinthians 11:14).

- This world is HIS “island.” In John 12:31, Jesus called him THE RULER OF THIS WORLD. 2 Corinthians 4:4 calls Satan THE GOD OF THIS AGE. Ephesians 2:2 depicts him as THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR.

I heard something recently from a radio preacher that struck me as quite profound. He said that the devil is incapable of creating anything new. There is no good thing in him. So he must invade the good to borrow from it or copy it. This means that the seven deadly sins are all corrupted versions of seven vital virtues. Let’s resolve to NOT give the devil his “due” or anything else. Let us practice the virtues and dump all seven of the deadly sins.